Moth Oddities went on a weeks-long trip to bring back the best vintage they could offer on Sept. 14

For five weeks, the changing continental U.S. landscape flashed by the passenger window of Yana Pietras and Ian O’Neill’s 1986 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, Eleanor. Across more than 4,800 miles, she got them across 16 states, through beautiful and desolate landscapes in the Dakotas, sunsets in Big Sur, the woods of Yosemite, along the iconic Route 66, and more in a road trip dubbed Vintage Adventure II. In what sounds like a momentous road trip for many really did fly by with the miles for Pietras and O’Neill. Then again, what is now Vintage Adventure I was four months around the perimeter of the United States.

The couple, who met while studying graphic design at the University of Minnesota, began their online vintage retail Moth Oddities in 2014. Their website is lean and highly curated—the maddening thing about it is because it’s vintage, there’s only one of an item—but with an influx of what is anywhere between 500 and 800 vintage finds from their journey out west, you can expect a flood of Americana, fall items, and American camp (as in “deliberately exaggerated and theatrical in style,” as Google says, not the tent kind). Before that happens, though, they’re hosting a coming back party of sorts on Sept. 14 with as much of their finds as can fit in the Duke Albert store.

Items are $15 a piece unless priced otherwise, another homage to the accessibility of some of the flea markets they experienced. Both Pietras and O’Neill would classify Moth Oddities as their full-time venture, but they take on freelance jobs as needed, too. Still, that means that if they want to go on a weeks-long road trip to the Rose Bowl flea market, they can do that.

“We talk a lot about travel and style and how those two are connected,” Pietras says. “They definitely overlap, especially in the world we’re in, where you can drive and hop into flea markets and thrift stores picking up and collecting really cool vintage pieces, and then in the next town, using them in a beautiful photo shoot. It’s cyclical.”

The famous monthly flea market was always on their bucket lists, but to be able to go and visit it was something else. Hearing Pietras and O’Neill talk about it, you get swept away in their excitement for it as they recount the immensity of the more than 2,500 vendor booths. (When they were there, they switched off who manned their booth so the other could go exploring.)

Because of some car troubles, they almost didn’t get there, but persistence beat complacency. “We were waking up at like 3 in the morning and doing crazy drives to get there, so when we were there, it was like an out-of-body experience; it was really cool. Listen to us, talking about a flea market like it was this...” Pietras trails off and laughs, seeming to grasp for an apt comparison like a once-in-a-lifetime concert or a solar eclipse. “It was really awesome, though.”

Some of the many vintage pieces Moth Oddities brought back from their road trip. Expect Americana, American-camp, decades, and fall fashion (along with some summer residuals) at their pop-up Sept. 14.

Besides the Rose Bowl flea market, other flea markets, thrift stores, and boutiques along the way garnered more treasures, like what O’Neill calls “the holy grail”—1970s Jack Purcell canvas converse—or the “so old and funny, so obnoxious” New Kids on the Block band shirt that made Pietras smile. After each stop, Eleanor’s trunk got more and more full, and by the end of the trip, they couldn’t see out the rearview mirror and looking at the back was like looking at a solid brick wall of clothes.

“There’s such culturally rich places throughout the entire country that are so incredible and so carried and different,” O’Neill says. “It’s really amazing to get to someplace like the southwest and embrace the patterns and fabrics and textiles there, especially in fashion and find pieces there that embody what the vibe is and bring that somewhere else and show people what we found and sort of take them along the trip with us.”

Check out Vintage Adventure II on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. at Duke Albert and meet the vintage wanderers themselves. They may even have some photos of their trip to show you for a little taste of their cross-country trip.

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From boutiques to salons to your own closet, TC Style will bring you expertly curated tips and tricks from the local shopping, fashion, beauty, wellness, and design scene. Odds are if you put it on, take it off, hang it up, or cut it out, we’ll tell you how to get it. Most importantly, we know that when you look good and feel good, you do good—the beautiful life is about much more than the material world. (But that won’t stop us from loving it.)